Page 8 - From Ghetto to Gucci: The Basic Principles of Flipping Houses

experienced buying and selling real estate should you attempt to sell your house by yourself.
I’ve flipped over 200 homes, and I still use a realtor. It’s a vitally important part of my business.

Why are realtors so important? Not only are they going to help you sell your house, but they can
also help you find the perfect house to buy. They are fantastic resources as you try and learn
the market, and can connect you with further resources in your quest.

The resource that will specifically be of great help for you is a service called the Multiple Listing
Service, or MLS. The MLS is the database in every market that sales are entered into. All
realtors pay to access this feature, and it lists all the houses currently for sale, pending sale, and
houses that have been sold. It is a vast repository of information to help you understand the
market—by studying the MLS, you can understand what houses will sell for, what level of finish
they will require, what strategies people are using to sell their house, and how much you can
buy your house for.

If you’re a student of the MLS, you can use it to understand the market, to find amazing deals,
and to use it as a marketing tool. It’s an extremely powerful and robust tool that will tell you 95%
of what you need to know to understand the state of the market, and to distinguish between
neighborhoods.

At the beginning of your quest to flip, your realtor is a gateway to the MLS. If you are truly
serious about flipping, you need to be serious about getting access to the MLS, and only your
realtor friend can help you. You see, the MLS is accessible only to licensed realtors and
brokers, and they pay a yearly fee for access to this resource. However, what you will be able to
do is convince a realtor to set you up with a view-only access to the MLS.

Once you’ve found your realtor—and don’t worry, we’ll cover how to find one soon—then you
need to explain to them your guys. Let them know that you plan on getting into flipping and how
much time and money you’re planning on investing in flipping. Let them know that they have a
unique opportunity to represent someone who is selling multiple properties in a year-that’s
catnip to realtors.

And let them know then that you would like access to the MLS as a condition of working with
them. If you’re willing to cover the cost of a view-only account, which is anywhere from
$100-300 yearly, they should be willing to set up an MLS account for you and teach you how to
use the tools available. Once you’re on the MLS, you should be able to begin researching the
market to understand what things are selling for, and what they’re listing for.

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